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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

-' 

Chap, jr.'L Copyright No. 
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 























jjmnng 5?our Series.—Hal. MI 


POLLY PEACEMAKER 

And Other Stories 


BY 

Anna Burnham Bryant 


BOSTON 

pilgrim Press 

CHICAGO 





46998 

Copyright, 1899, 

By Anna Burnham Bryant, 


TWO COPIES RECEIVED. 


•ECONO COPY, 





9 ^ tjy 



CONTENTS 


c? 


PAGE 


Folly Peacemaker 




5 

How Stacy Helped . 

# 




IO 

The Rich Little Dolly . 




!3 

How Katie Kept Sunday . 




18 

She Knew the Difference 




21 

A Little Minister . 




2 3 

The Playmate She Liked Best 




26 

“ Do as You ’re Bid ” 




29 

The Lord’s Weather 




33 

“That Thing” 




36 

Lillie’s Doves .... 




38 

Where Help Came From 




4 i 

Two Excuses and a Reason 




46 

Kitty’s Bible Verses 




50 

Lennie’s Looking-glass 




54 

Fred’s Temptation . ... 

•? • 



58 

Just a Try Story 




61 

The Christmas Dolly 




66 

Sing a Song o’ Snowdrifts 




68 

The Little Pet Lammie . 




69 

Archie’s Sketch-book 




73 












✓ 2 























































POLLY PEACEMAKER 


You need n’t suppose that was 
her real Christian name that the 
minister gave her. No, indeed! 
Would n’t that have made the peo¬ 
ple laugh all over the church! 

But everybody grew to call her 
by it. Little Polly was the dearest, cunning- 
est thing, like all babies that ever I saw ; 


5 






6 


POLLY PEACEMAKER 


but as she grew there was some¬ 
thing else to be said and noticed 
about her that I am sorry to say 
is not to be seen in all little 
folks. She never would make a 
fuss, or let there be any fuss 
about anything. When she was 
the tiniest little bit of a baby, if anybody had 
her in his arms and somebody else came in 
and started to take her, perhaps the little 
thing would let herself be coaxed away, but 
not without turning back in such a sweet, 
polite way and putting up her mouth for a 
good-by kiss, as much as to say, “ I’m going 
one minute, if you don’t mind, but I love 
you all the same, and I would n’t hurt your 
feelings for anything! ” That was what 
we all agreed she would say, if she could 
speak. 

Well, she grew older and had little play¬ 
mates. I ’ll tell you about one afternoon and 
the next morning. 

“ I ’m a-coming over to your house ! ” said 
Josephine, the little next-door neighbor. 





AND OTHER STORIES 


7 


“ Mother says I can, and stay till I see your 
mother go to get supper.” 

“ Goody! ” said Polly, who used funny 
words sometimes. “And we’ll play cards 
and calling. I ’ve got 
a lovely new parasol, 
and you can carry it 
to half the houses.” 

Josephine was so 
glad she hopped right 
up and down, and then 
she took her things 
off and they played 
and played all that 
summer after¬ 
noon. 

Polly was a very 
fine lady calling on THE next-door neighbor 
Josephine (whose play 

name was Mrs. Gooseumberry), and all the 
children had the measles, and some of them 
a. broken leg. 

“ Have n’t we had a lovely time ? ” said 
both the little girls together, as they saw 







POLLY PEACEMAKER 


Polly’s mother get up and begin to shake out 
the tablecloth. That was the sign that play¬ 



time was over, unless they were specially in¬ 
vited. “ Your pink parasol is so lovely! ” 

“I know it!” answered Polly joyfully. 
“ My Aunt Katie gave it to me the last — oh, 
look out for your rocker, Josephine! It’s 
gone right over the beautiful handle! ” 

It had n’t gone over the handle, but right 
square across the long, slender stick — and 
there it lay, in two pieces. For a moment 






AND OTHER STORIES 


9 


both the little girls looked at it, and then 
Josephine burst out crying. Instantly Polly 
had her arms round her comforting her. 

“It isn’t a mite of matter!” she cried 
eagerly. “I guess you’re ever so much 
more sorrier than I am! And I ’ll get it all 
mended up and fixed — you see if I don’t! 
Oh, dear me ! don’t cry any more ! It makes 
me cry! ” 

Josephine went home very soberly, holding 
in her hand the parasol, which Polly had 
given her to stop crying. But the next 
morning right across her crib lay the pretty 
parasol, or a new one just like it, marked, 
“ For Polly Peacemaker, from Josephine’s 
papa, with both their loves.” 





TO 


POLLY PEACEMAKER 



The minister believed in everybody’s help¬ 
ing— “ having a hand in it,” as he called it. 
And he went on to tell how each one could 




AND OTHER STORIES 


I I 

have a hand in it, or at least a little finger. 
The church began in a kitchen — a nice, 
shiny, beautiful 
kitchen where a dear 
lady who loved 
Christ gathered 
some of his little 
ones on Sunday 
afternoons for a Sun¬ 
day-school. By and 
by the kitchen was 
too small, and they 
went into a school- 
house. Then they 
outgrew that and 
built them a chapel. 

And now on this 
Sunday morning the 
minister took every¬ 
body by surprise by 
telling them that it 
was time they built a 
church, for the chapel was full and running over. 

How people looked at each other! How 



STACY 






12 


POLLY PEACEMAKER 


their eyes began to shine, and their faces to 
look thoughtful, for there were not many 
members of the Can’t Family in that church, 
and never have been. When the minister 
asked who would give and how much, they 
popped up all over the room with their twen¬ 
ties and fifties and hundred and fifties. And 
who should “pop” among the rest but Stacy 
— a little bit of a fellow who had to stand up 
on the settee to be seen or noticed! 

“ Put me down for five ! ” he said, just like 
the other men folks. 

Well, people laughed, and his father 
laughed, but he nodded Yes to the man who 
was putting the names down, and down it went. 

Did he ever earn it? Yes, sir! All his 
own self, in the funniest way you ever heard 
of! All summer long he made wire dish¬ 
cloths. Ask your mother to show you one, and 
see how he had to pinch the little rings to¬ 
gether. This is a true story, and though the 
boy’s real name was n’t Stacy, he was a real 
boy, and the church was the beautiful Pilgrim 
Church, in Worcester Massachusetts. 



AND OTHER STORIES 


13 


PT' 

THE RICH 
LITTLE 
DOLLY 



If Nannie 
had one doll, 
she had 
m twenty, and there was not the 
^ least reason in the world why 
* anybody should have taken a 
notion to give her another. 
But this was a different kind of 
dolly. Her other dollies 
were made out of cornstalks 
and corncobs and clothespins 
- ' and yellow gourds from the 

garden. She dressed them up in funny little 












14 POLLY PEACEMAKER 

dresses and kissed them and loved them and 
played with them, and had just as much fun, 
I do believe, as if they had all come from 
Paris. For all that, it was a wonderful day 
when Aunt Maria brought 
her the Rich Little Dolly. 
That was the name that 
Nannie gave her. 

Whenever the new dolly 
came into the playhouse, it 
seemed as if all the other 
dollies stood off in a corner 
and pointed at her and said, 
“ Here comes the Rich Lit¬ 
tle Dolly ! ” The Gourd 
Dolly nearly twisted her 
neck off looking after her, when Nannie 
carried her off up-stairs to play alone with. 
The Clothespin Dolly stood on its head trying 
to make a very low bow to her, and they all^ 
huddled in corners and would n’t make friends 
with such a stuck-up thing. (That’s what 
Nannie said they said.) 

Just think how hard all this was for the 



AND OTHER STORIES 


J 5 


poor Rich Little Dolly ! You know how you 

hate to have the other girls hang back and 

not speak to you or be nice 

when you want to play with f§2 

them. Nannie saw that the If I j pL, 

new dolly would soon be very 

unhappy, for all her pretty, 

red cheeks (stained with cur- 

rant juice) and her beautiful 

crinkly hair (made out of stocking ravel- 

ings) and her whole trunkful of new dresses. 

What should she do? Nannie used to 

take her out to walk and tried to make her 

happy. 

Happening one morning to go into the 
playroom rather early, she saw her dear dolly 
lying over the corner of the high mantel with 
her feet hanging down and her poor little 
arm dropped over the edge and such a look 
on her face! 

“My poor little darling!” cried Nannie, 
“what is the matter? Tell your own 
mamma! Won’t those mean old dollies be 
good to you ? ” 



POLLY PEACEMAKER 


I 6 


The Rich Little Dolly did n’t speak, but 
Nannie knew from her look what she meant. 



“ Oh, it is n’t pretty dresses that do you 
any good ; it’s loving folks and being loved 














AND OTHER STORIES I 7 

back again ! That’s what I want, and they 
won’t let me ! ” 

“You dear thing!” said Nannie, “you 
shall. You just begin and be as sweet as 
honey to them, and see if they don’t have to 
begin, too. Say, suppose you lend that big 
fat Gourd Dolly one of your dresses ! ” 

That was the beginning of it. And from 
that day, do you know, the Rich Little Dolly 
began to be such a favorite in the playroom! 
All the other dollies stopped calling her 
“ stuck-up,” and such bad names, and little 
by little they all loved her for her unselfish¬ 
ness as much as they had hated her before 
for her beauty. The Rich Little Dolly learned 
a lesson too. If you ever have nicer things 
than other folks, it is n’t to make them stare 
at you and wish they were you. It is to go 
shares and be friendly with, and make the 
others richer with your riches. 




POLLY PEACEMAKER 



Sunday-school and finding her best friend, 
Katie Somers, with her old everyday red mit¬ 
tens on and a big basket and her little baby 


HOW KATIE KEPT SUNDAY 


“ Oh ? what a bad, bad, break-Sunday girl! ” 
cried Lily Day, coming over all ready for 




AND OTHER STORIES 


19 


sister Ellie all packed up on the sled as if she 
was going somewhere. “ I should n’t s’pect 
your mamma would letyou go sliding Sunday!” 

“ It depends on what you are going for, 
little lady ! ” spoke up Grandma Somers, who 
had just stepped out to give an extra tuck to 
the little red skirt of Ellie’s coat, and to try 
the sled string. “That’s good and strong, 
Katie. Now scud along, and tell him I sent 
you with my love and the 
basket and the baby to 
cheer him up a bit. And 
when you Ve got him a cup 
o’ tea and warmed up the 
broth and fixed his bed a 
little and so on, you come 
straight home, and maybe, 
then, there’ll be time for 
meeting, if not for Sunday- 
school. By-by, darlings! 

“ It all depends ! ” she repeated, watching 
them out of sight, and talking to Lily. 
“ There’s a poor man sick down in that little 
red house past the causeway. He has n’t got 





20 


POLLY PEACEMAKER 


anybody to look out for him, and he ’s almost 
helpless in his feet, so he can’t crawl round 
to do for himself any. That makes him 
dreadful blue and discouraged, too, which is 
worse than the sickness. I always go and 
carry him something when I can, but to-day 
I scalt my hand and should n’t help any. 
Besides, I knew the sight of the children 
would do more for him than all my broths 
and messes. So that's why Katie is breaking 
Sunday, my dear ! ” 

“ Oh /” said Lily thoughtfully. “ I guess 
maybe it’s only a kind of Jesus way of break¬ 
ing it, don’t you ? ” 

And grandma nodded. 



AND OTHER STORIES 


21 


SHE KNEW THE DIFFERENCE 


Harry and Bertie went to the same school, 
and they were in 
many of the same 
classes They were 
both bright, pretty¬ 
looking boys, and 
strangers who visited 
the school always 
picked them out for 
their pleasant ways 
and ready answers. 

Sometimes they 
praised them to the 
teacher, and she usu-‘ 
ally bowed silently 
and made no talk 
about it. A kind 
teacher comes to feel 
a good deal as the 



Honest as the day 










22 


POLLY PEACEMAKER 


mothers do about their children. It is hard 
to own up to any stranger that there is any 
trouble with any of them. 

But one visitor would not take that sort of 
an answer. “Tell me,” she said, “aren’t 
they both real good boys ? I have a special 
reason for asking. I want to help some boy 
a little— if I can find one that needs it and 
deserves it. If he has n’t a nice home I can 
give him one, and I can make him very happy.” 

This was a school where very few of the 
boys had nice homes. It was a grand chance 
for some boy. 

“Well,” said the teacher, “ I will tell you. 
They both seem very bright and nice, but 
I know the difference! Bertie, here, is 
honest as the day. He cant tell a lie, any 
more than George Washington. Harry, 
poor boy ” — 

“ I see! I see ! ” said the kind old lady. 
“ No matter about any more. It’s the old 
story — tares and wheat — bad and good, all 
mixed together. But somebody always knows 
the difference.” 


AND OTHER STORIES 


23 



A LITTLE MINISTER 


Lily Bell said she wanted 
to be “ bungled up ” and go 
out in the cold weather. Oh, 
but was n’t it cold that frosty 
morning! 

Mamina laughed, but she let her breakfast 
dishes stand a few minutes while she bundled 
up her little girl and sent her out for rosy 
cheeks and a red nose and bright eyes and all 
the rest of the things that a good run in 
winter gives you. 

“Oh, you dear little birdie!” cried Lily 




24 


POLLY PEACEMAKER 


Bell, stopping at the gatepost to speak to a 
fluffy little brown ball that stood there on 
his little cold feet, looking at her with eyes 
as bright as buttons, and seeming to want 
to say something. 

“ Why aren’t you scat of 
me ? ” asked Lily. 

She did not know that this 
was one of Uncle Frank’s tame 
wild birds that came every morn¬ 
ing in winter to get crumbs, 
and it seemed very odd to her 
that he did n’t spread out his 
wings and fly away, as most 
birds did. 

All at once she thought. 

“You poor little thing! I do believe 
you ’re hungry! ” she cried, and ran back into 
the house as fast as her two feet would carry 
her. When she came out she had a handful 
of crumbs, and called and coaxed to make 
him come and take some. The bird had 
flown away, but he came back then, and 
pretty soon he came down and ate some of 





AND OTHER STORIES 25 

the crumbs she sprinkled on the snow for 

him. 

Uncle Frank saw it all from his window. 
“ Well done, little minister! ” he said when 
she came in, an hour or two afterwards. 

“ How funny to call me a minister! ” 
laughed Lily; but he picked up the big dic¬ 
tionary and showed her the word there and 
the meaning. 

“ ‘ Minister: One who serves or helps.’ 
There you are,” he said. “A little minister 
or helper.” 



26 


POLLY PEACEMAKER 


THE PLAYMATE SHE LIKED BEST 


HEY are all so rough, mamma 
dear, and they laugh so ! ” 
Poor little Pollie put up 
her lip and looked so forlorn 
that mamma almost made up 
her mind to let her stay at 
home as she wanted to, and try to teach her 
everything herself. Some of you little chil¬ 
dren may not know it, but there are children 
who find it very hard to go to school and 
say lessons and speak when they are spoken 
to. I have seen a little boy faint away and 
fall off his seat in the first forenoon at school, 
because “the scholars looked at him.’ , Will 
you try to think of this and be kind to the 
shy ones ? 

But little Pollie had a wise mother. I am 
sure I don’t know where she found the little 
gentleman who came next day to play 




AND OTHER STORIES 


27 


with her and help her wheel her dolly. I 
did n’t see any notice in the newspapers or 
hear any crier ’round, but he surely must 
have known he was wanted. 

Such a gentle little way he had as he came, 
along on the sand and offered to help tuck up 
Miss Dolly. The other boys would n’t touch 
a doll with the tip end of their little finger. 
Pollie was almost 
ready to cry at the 
very sight of a boy, 
but the tears 
did n’t really drop, 
and little by little 
they got very well 
acquainted. 

Mother watched 
her one little chick 
and was glad to see how they got on. If she 
had had any brothers, boys would not have 
seemed so dreadful, but their loud voices 
and stamping boots had always scared her. 
Next day he came again, and the next, and 
all the week after. Then, one day he asked 








28 


POLLY PEACEMAKER 



her to go to his Sunday-school and she said: 
“ Yes, if only the scholars were all boys! ” 

So you see boys need n’t be so rough and 
dreadful unless they want to. 

Her new friend came Saturday afternoon 
and studied the lesson with her, and Pollie’s 
mother told them all the hard words and 
heard them say the answers. Then they had 
supper together — a lovely little supper, of 
tarts and things — and next day she did go 
with him and stayed all through the lesson. 




AND OTHER STORIES 


2 9 


“DO AS YOU'RE BID" 



AVY and Dennis 
learned a funny little 
rhyme when they were 
about knee-high, and, 
whenever their 
mother thought they 
needed it, they had 
to come and 
stand by her 
knee and say it 
in concert: — 

Come when you ’re 
called, 

Do as you ’re bid; 

Mind what you’re told, 

And you ’ll never be chid.” 


Anybody would think they had said it times 
enough to know it by heart, but it was n’t 
very deep down in their hearts, their mother 


30 


POLLY PEACEMAKER 


said, or else it would strike through oftener 
into their actions. 

“ Come home to-day at three o’clock ! ” she 
told them one noon as they started for the/ 



schoolhouse, which was n’t far away. “ Run 
right home the instant school is out. I want 
you.” 

School was out at three, but so were a lot 
of big boys, at a baseball game, and mother’s 
two boys did n’t start on the instant, nor for 
a good many instants. When they did go 











“ Lots of fun ,r 

fun, and Davy and Dennis came running up 
to ask mother where she had been, and why 
she didn’t stop to take them in, and so on 
and so on. 


AND, OTHER STORIES 


home, they found the house locked up and 
no mother in sight, or anybody. 

Some time before night a gay carryall 
rolled into the yard, full of folks and full of 


32 


POLLY PEACEMAKER 


“ Why did n’t you come home at three ? ” 
said mother, stopping them. “That’s what 
I told you ! ” 

“ There was a ball game ! ” faltered Davy. 

“And it’s lots of fun to sit on the fence 
and yell!” said Dennis. “But if we’d ’a’ 
known ” — 

“You did know! ” said mother severely. 
“ I said, ‘ Come home.’ Next time do as 
you’re bid — exactly — or, if you don’t, 
you ’ll be the losers.” 

“ Shall we always lose something nice, like 
this carryall ride ? ” 

“ Something a great deal nicer, I am 
afraid,” said mamma. 


and other stories 


33 


THE LORD'S WEATHER 




HE snow was com¬ 
ing down in 
handfuls. It 
looked as if 
somebody 
was shaking 
feather-pil¬ 
lows out of 
the sky. 

“ Now — now ! ” said little Roger, “ all the 
fun is spoiled. Now we can’t ride any more 
on the pretty wheels. Oh, what a country, 
where the rain looks like flour! ” 

Roger lived away in a 
sunny south-land, where they 
never see snow, and he had 
come up north for a visit. 

For a wonder, all the five or 
six days he had been there, 




34 


POLLY PEACEMAKER 


not a sign of snow had been seen. It was 
not too cold, either, and he and his cousin 
Charlie had ridden about on their pretty 
wheels or run on their own two feet, and 
found the days too short for the fun they 
wanted to crowd into them. 

“ Pooh! ” cried Charlie now, looking out 
of the window to see the “ wild white bees 
of winter,” as Mr. Bayard Taylor calls them. 
“There’s more than one way of having fun 
up here, you ’ll find out. You just wait 
till father gets out the big sleigh and we 
all go galloping off to grandma’s! I heard 
him planning that the last thing before I 
went to bed. There he comes now! He’s 
going to take the two horses.” 

Roger ran to look too, and sure enough, 
there were the two big black horses, looking 
as if they would like nothing better than 
prancing through a snowdrift, and there was 
father helping the hired man to harness up, 
and Roger could hear the bells jingling, and 
the clink and clatter of the shining harness 
as it went on the backs of the two strong fel- 


AND OTHER STORIES 


35 


lows that were to pull the big- sleigh and give 
the boys a day’s outing. 

“ Well! ” said Roger, making his face at 



least an inch shorter, as he hurried to dress, 
and get ready, “ I 
think I must have 
been a goose to 
complain of the 
weather. I 
think all kinds 
must be good 
for somebody.” 

“That’s 
what the Bible 
says,” Charlie 
answered. “There’s 
a verse mother always 
tells me when I fret over the weather: 

‘ He hath made every thing beautiful in his 
time.’ And snow-weather is one of the very 
best kinds God makes, / think.” 


36 


POLLY PEACEMAKER 


44 THAT THING ” 

ANNIE was the pret¬ 
tiest girl! You 
might look all over 
ten towns and not 
find such another 
shiny-eyed girl with 
such yellow, shiny 
curls and such dear, 
delightful dimples 
everywhere, in fingers, cheek, and chin. 

And she lived next door to the homeliest 
girl! Oh, such a homely girl! The other 
girls all called her “ that thing,” and would n’t 

let her play with them at recess. Nannie 

never did so. She was pretty clear through , 
and was just as loving to homely Maggie as 
to anybody. 

One day Nannie’s little brother got lost. 
Father hunted and mother hunted. All the 
town turned out. But nobody could find him. 





AND OTHER STORIES 


37 


About noon a shadow crossed the door¬ 
way. Nannie looked up to see a freckled¬ 
faced girl with ragged, yellow-brown hair and 
big staring blue eyes. It was Maggie. 

“ Prospect-holes ! ” said Maggie. She 
never could spare many words. 

“Oh!” cried Nannie, trembling at the 
very idea. In that dreadful mining country 
there were deep holes where a baby might 
get lost and never be found again. 

“I found him!” said Maggie. “Deep, 
deep hole. Want men and ropes. He 
picked bluebells. Little tracks — so long!” 

“Oh, you dear, darling Maggie! ” cried 
Nannie earnestly. “Please go quick! Find 
him for me ! Go ! Go ! ” 

Maggie went, and before long she came 
back with little Jack safe and unhurt in her 
long, strong arms, for she had made the men 
lower her down into the hole, and when she 
came up she would n’t let him go. 

“ You ’re good to me,” she said gratefully 
to Nannie. “ You never said ‘That thing.’” 


38 


POLLY PEACEMAKER 


LILLIE'S DOVES 

ILLIE had more fun with her doves 
than with any other of her pets or 
playthings. Papa and mamma 
were both glad to have her enjoy 
them, and built her a dear little 
house for them, and saw that she 
always had grain to feed them, and made it 
very nice and easy ; too easy, I used to think. 
Children who have everything made ready the 
minute they want it are not always grateful, 
and often grow very selfish. 

One day mamma happened to say at break¬ 
fast, “ Aunt Hannah writes that she is com¬ 
ing to make us a good, long visit, Robert.” 

“ Robert ” was Lillie’s papa. He nodded 
pleasantly, but mamma knew very well that it 
somehow mixed itself up with the latest news, 
from Cuba, and it did not make half so much 
impression on him just at that moment. When 
fL man is reading a newspaper, it is best to 



AND OTHER STORIES 


39 


wait about telling any bit of news, if you 
want him to understand it. Even Lillie, in 
her short life, had learned that much! 

But Lillie was n’t reading any newspaper. 
Her sharp little ears took it all in, and her 
little heart was so vexed that she 
could hardly finish her breakfast. 

“She’ll take all my tim 
wait on her! ” she cried 
the minute she got out 
among the barn swallows. 

“She always wants cold 
water forty times a day, as long as she stays 
here, and she would just as lief send me 
clear to the North Pole for it, if she thought 
I d get back in time. Oh, you dear little 
lovey-doveys, I may as well say good-by to 
you for all summer, if Aunt Hannah is com¬ 
ing ! She ’ll want her glasses hunted and her 
pillow brought and her knitting found and her 
ball picked up and her needle threaded ” — 

“ My poor, selfish little girl ! ” 

Lillie jumped as if somebody had spoken 
out of the sky at her, but the next minute 



40 POLLY PEACEMAKER 

she saw it was only papa’s face looking down 
from a great beam in the big, dusky barn. 
He had been there all the time and heard all 
her talk to the doves and the barn swallows. 

“ So covetous of her fun time that she 
can’t spare a bit of it to poor, blind old Aunt 
Hannah ! ” 

Lillie hung her head. How very queer it 
was that papa should have heard, after all, in 
spite of the newspaper! And now — what 
would he think of her ! 

“I thought ‘covetous’ meant something 
about money,” she said at last, not liking to 
remember all the Bible texts about coveting, 

“ Sometimes, and sometimes not,” said 
papa. “ It means selfishness, and I do hope 
my little girl will get rid of the last rag and 
shred of it! ” 


AND OTHER STORIES 


41 


WHERE HELP CAME FROM 


HINGS looked so 
dark one Satur¬ 
day morning in 
the little pink house 
that even mother 
gave up. It is dread¬ 
ful to have your 
mother give up. As 
long as she keeps brave 
and smiling you can 
seem to get along, if 
there is n’t much to eat 
and not chips enough to 
keep a fire to cook it, if you 
had any. (I am just telling 
what Ben said when he saw his 
mother throw her apron over her 
head and rock back and forth and say that she 
could n’t bear it.) 






42 


POLLY PEACEMAKER 



“ Don’t, mamma ! ” cried Maud, plucking 
at the apron. 

“ Dorit , mar-mar ! ” howled Lucy, the baby, 
tugging at her neck and a wisp of hair that 
had slipped away from the hairpins. 



“ Don’t, mamma ! ” begged Ben, catching 
up the baby; and then he added: “ I guess 
God would help us if we asked him.” 

















AND OTHER STORIES 


43 


Mother took one wet eye out of her apron. 
It was a hard, troubled, untrustful look she 
gave him. 

“Then you’d better ask him, ” she said 
snappily, “for I don’t know anything about 
it. All the money I ever got was what my 
two hands earned for me.” 

Ben knew that was so true. Poor mother 
did n’t know anything about the comfort of 
having somebody to 
help her. All his life 
those two hands had 
worked so hard for 
them all, but they had 
worked alone. And 
now with the rent due 
and the landlord warn- 
ing you out, to have 
those brave hands go 
and get all knotted up 
with the rheumatism 
was a little too hard, or so she said and 
thought, not knowing what God was planning 
for her. 










44 


POLLY PEACEMAKER 


But Ben had had a chance to learn about a 
Helper. In Sunday-school you learn things, 
if you listen. They are not told you to go 
home and forget all about. 

“ Teacher said Jesus had just as lief help 
you in one trouble as another,” went on Ben, 
half to himself, though mother was listening 
“ And all the Bible troubles he helped them 
out of the very minute they asked him But 
you had to ask, or you would n’t get him to.” 

“ To-morrow is Sunday, and not a morsel 
o’ meat or bread or potatoes, and no money 
to get any! ” said mother helplessly. 

“Well.” said Ben thoughtfully, getting up 
to go into the little bedroom, “ I am going 
to tell him all about it.” 

He had not had half time to get through 
the story when there came a rough rap at 
the door, and a man pushed it open himself 
with his own whip-handle, and asked if there 
was n’t a boy lived there. Of course there 
was, and mother called him. 

“Can you tend sheep — run after ’em, 
when they go flyin’ over stone walls and into 


AND OTHER STORIES 


45 


pastures, ’stead o’ keeping to the straight 
road, as I want ’em?” he said. “ I’ve got a 
flock I’m trying to get to Gloucester, and 
they won’t do it this summer ’less I have a 
boy to help drive ’em.” 

“ I ’ll help you ! ” cried Ben 
joyfully. 

“ It’s an all-day job! ” warned 
the drover. “ But I ’ll give ye 
a silver dollar.” 

“ Bring on your sheep ! ” said Ben, getting 
his cap. To his mother he whispered : “ The 
Lord did help ! There ’ll be more than one 
‘ morsel ’ in the house over Sunday; see if 
there is n’t! And we know where to go for 
help next time. 



j v. 



4 6 


POLLY PEACEMAKER 


TWO EXCUSES AND A REASON 


AT - tat - tdit-tat! ” 
and a “ rat-tat- 
X.2i\.-tat! ” and a 
“ rat - tat-tat -tat 
tat -too ! ” 

The little 
drummer kept 
very good time 
both in his sing¬ 
ing and tat-too- 
ing, and Miss 
Matildaputdown 
the shiny toast- 
rack to see who 
was giving her a 
serenade so early in the morning. 

The blowsy little head wagged a sunny 
good-morning to her, and the blue eyes 
danced as they saw what she had in her hand, 




AND OTHER STORIES 


47 


for she had forgotten to put down her slice 
of good graham bread when she came to the 
door. 

“ I like tan bread ! ” said the owner of the 
eyes. 

“Oh! you do!” laughed Miss Matilda, 
handing over the bread to the winsome little 
beggar. 

“ Does you always give tan bread to little 
boys ? ” he asked when the last morsel had 
been stuffed into that red mouth. 

“ It depends! ” laughed Miss Matilda. 
“ Sometimes they don’t come to get it when 
I call them. 

“ Was that what you was going to give me 
that other time when I drummed and you 
wanted me to stay to do it longer ? ” 

“The other day? Oh, no!” said Miss 
Matilda, going back to her fire and her 
breakfast. She knew that the little drummer 
would follow now, and all the better for not 
being invited. She loved little boys and had 
tried to coax this one inside her door, but he 
was as shy as a bird, and she had not found 


48 


POLLY PEACEMAKER 


the way to catch him. “That day? Let me 
see ! I believe it was plum-cake ! ” 

“ O-ee! I like plum-cake ! ” 
“Yes, most little boys do,” 
said Miss Matilda, not looking 
at him. “ I believe you said 
your mamma wanted you, so 
you could n’t wait.” 

The little drummer’s face 
grew rather red. “ H’m ! well! 
She ’most always does want 
me ! But p’rhaps ” — 

“ And, besides, they did n’t 
like to have you going into 
“ O-ee! l like folkses’ houses, you said. It 
plum-cake!” i s n \ every little boy that is so 
careful about what his mother wants.” 

The little drummer’s faqe grew very red. 
He kicked first one foot out and then the 
other. He said “ H’m ! ” and “ Well! ” and 
“You see!” a good many times before he 
could think of anything else to say. Then 
he said : — 

“That was just only make-believe rea- 



AND OTHER STORIES 


49 


sons — those two ! I was having such a good 
time drumming — that ’s why ! But I did n’t 
know ’bout the plum-cake ! ” 

Miss Matilda laughed as she crossed over 
to the cake-closet. She took a great sharps 
knife and cut a thick, plummy slice right across 
the loaf. 

“ Maybe I ought n’t to give it to you before 
breakfast,” she said, handing it to him, “but 
you may have so much for your honesty! 
Perhaps it ’ll help you to keep clear of make- 
believe reasons! ” 



5 ° 


POLLY PEACEMAKER 


KITTY'S BIBLE VERSES 


T of the little brown 
house one morning 
went a half-fright¬ 
ened little girl on a 
very long journey. 
She was going four 
whole miles through 
the woods to visit her 
auntie. 

The little brown house was white with 
snow now, for it was what Aunt Hannah called 
“dead o’ winter,” and that meant that you 
had to go halfway to your waist if you stepped 
off the doorstep, and perhaps might get fast 
stuck in a big drift if your waist was n’t any 
higher than Kitty’s. That was just what did 
happen to her this very morning, and the 
hired man had to come up laughing and dig 
her out. 





AND OTHER STORIES 5 I 

“ You make a beautiful white statue for 
our front lawn! ” laughed Susy, the “ help,” 
coming to the window 
with a cup in her hand. 

“ I’ve always wanted to 
see some kind of a marble 
image out there. All in 
white, so, you do very 
well for one ! ” 

“You aren’t a bit 
Golden Rule-y! ” said 
Kitty, pouting. “ I should 
think you’d think what 
the Bible says and ‘do unto others’ a little! 
You would n’t like it to be laughed at, so 
now! ” 

“ Sho ! sho ! ” said Uncle Si, coming up to 
take her in his arms, like a big snow bundle, 
and dumping her in the old pung that stood 
ready by the front gate. “ Don’t you go to 
quoting Bible verses at other people. Keep 
’em for your own use. You ’ll need a plenty.” 

“ That’s so, Kitty ! ” said Aunt Hannah 
from the doorway. “ I sha’n’t be there to tell 



52 


POLLY PEACEMAKER 


you, but I don’t think you could try a safer 
plan than to live every day by your Bible 
verses. Think ’em over, child, every morning, 
and then all through the day, whenever any¬ 
thing bothers you, just you see if there is n’t 
one or another of ’em that j ust fits. The Bible 
has a wonderful way of doing that. / can’t 
keep you from doing wrong always, but you 
can’t expect to have me always at your elbow. 
You can have a better Keeper. The Lord 
will be it, if you ’ll only let him, 
and the best way to do that is to 
tuck away a lot of Bible verses 
in your memory, and then try to 
live up to ’em.” 

Poor Kitty had n’t any mother, 
but dear Aunt Hannah was next 
best to that, and she tried to 
bring Kitty up in just the way 
that the darling own mamma 
would have liked to do herself 
if she had stayed long enough. 
And the thing that Kitty’s mamma wanted 
most of anything while she was living was 



KITTY’S OWN 
MAMMA 





AND OTHER STORIES 


53 


to see her little girl be good and minding 
Jesus. 

How often Kitty had promised her she 
would try ! 

“But I sha’n’t—I know I sha’n’t! — not 
without you ! ” said Kitty, hugging Aunt 
Hannah so hard that her glasses fell off. “ I 
get so mad when the boys plague me! ” 

“ Oh, yes, you will ! ” said Aunt Hannah. 
“Just think of your Bible verses.” 

One week from that day Kitty came home, 
and the first thing she did was to whisper a 
secret right in Aunt Hannah’s ear: — 

“ I never got mad once ! ” 

“ You did n’t! Then I guess you thought 
about your peacemaker verses ! ” 

“Yes, and the ‘Love one another’ text. 
Oh, I was so glad I knew so many! ” 


54 


POLLY PEACEMAKER 



LENNIE'S LOOKING-GLASS 


Lennie was sitting behind a plate-glass 
window, looking at a crowd of boys coasting. 
If it had not been for a lame foot, he would 
have been out there with them. He felt 
that he was on the wrong side of the glass 
altogether. 





AND OTHER STORIES 


55 


His mother was making Christmas wreaths, 
and talking pleasantly now and then, so that 
he might not feel lonely. She knew just how 
hard it is for a boy to go 
and sprain his ankle, right 
in coasting time. 

By and by Lennie began 
to get interested in seeing 
'what was going on out 
there. 

“ Look at that big pig of 
a Tommy Lisle, mother! ” 
he cried loudly. “ Pulled 
away little Jerry Atkins’ 
sled, and ran off with it. 

There he goes now, down 
the hill. Would n’t I like 
to trip him, though ! ” 

“It is mean! ” said 
mother, looking, too, a 
minute. “ It always makes me feel so bad 
to see big boys mean to little ones.” 

“Johnny Baker lets his little sister drag 
her own sled up the hill, and he’s strong 




56 


POLLY PEACEMAKER 


enough to take a dozen sleds. See her go 
tugging along! ” 

Pretty soon he saw somebody else do a 
“ mean ” thing, and told what he thought 
about it. 



“Nice set they are out there this morn¬ 
ing!” he said, scowling at them. “Of all 
the selfish ” — 

“ My dear boy! ” said mother, turning 
around to smile at him. “ Aren’t you tired 
of looking in the looking-glass ? ” 

“What do you mean, mamma?” asked 
Lennie with a puzzled face. “ I don’t see 
any looking-glass! ” 






















AND OTHER STORIES 


57 


“ But I do ! ” said his mother, pointing out 
of the window. “That crowd of boys has 
been showing you Lennie Duncan for the 
last half-hour. Can’t you remember doing 
just such mean things yourself, dear?” 

“Why, mamma, I don’t treat my little 
sister that way, nor snatch anybody’s sled, 
nor ” — 

“ Perhaps not just those things, but just as 
bad. Who was it picked out the biggest 
plum from the basket yesterday, and let little 
Floy pick up all the papers you scattered, 
and would not stop reading out aloud when 
the little girls wanted to play house in this 
room, and ” — 

“Oh, mamma!” cried Lennie, with red 
cheeks, “don’t say any more! I did n t 
think! ” 

“Very well,” said mamma. “ Don’t you 
say any more. Very likely they don’t think, 
either. Use other people’s faults for a look- 
ing-glass to mend your own by.” 


58 


POLLY PEACEMAKER 



yet, if you watched close, you could see that 
he tried hard to do right a good deal of the 
time. It seemed as if there were two Fred¬ 
dies, a good Freddy and a bad Freddy, and 
you never could tell which one you were go¬ 
ing to have to get along with. 

Mamma did use to wish that somebody 




AND OTHER STORIES 


59 


could fly away with the bad Freddy and keep 
him forever and ever. She never wanted to 
see him again. 

Well, the two Freddies used to have fights 
together. Mamma used to like to set them at it. 
And she always wanted her good Freddy to beat. 


“Take care, dear! 
she would say, when 
she saw the fight be¬ 
ginning. “Don’t lose 
the battle ! Don’t let 
the bad Freddy con¬ 
quer ! ” 

And by and by up 
would come her own 
dear boy, smiling and 
happy, and saying, 
“ Here is your good 
Freddy again ! I Ve 
sent the other one off 
to the heathen ! ” 

“ Poor heathen ! ” 
“I’m sorry for them ; 
fit for any other comp 



mamma would say, 
but after all, he was n’t 


6o 


POLLY PEACEMAKER 


But one day mamma went across the lawn 
to see a neighbor, and told Freddy to stay on 
his side of the hedge, and not to follow her. 

“ Come on ! ” said the bad Freddy. “ Who 
wants to stay here ? ” 

“ Mamma said ‘ not’! ” said the good Freddy. 

“ Who cares ? ” said the bad Freddy, pull¬ 
ing him almost through the hole in the hedge. 

All at once mamma heard a frightened lit¬ 
tle voice calling, “ Come here ! Quick! 
quick ! ” called Freddy, halfway through the 
hedge. “ I feel like I was going froo ! ” 

Did you know that that is the way to call 
out to Jesus if ever the bad part of you gets 
the better of you ? 



AND OTHER STORIES 


61 




JUST A TRY STORY 


One day mamma was having a young lady 
caller, and she heard such a very big sigh 



62 


POLLY PEACEMAKER 


that she stopped in the middle of a sentence 
to turn around and see who was feeling so 
bad about something. And it 
was nobody but little Susy, this 
bright-faced little girl on the 
other page. Only she was any¬ 
thing but bright-faced when her 
mamma turned to look at her. 

“ It takes such a long, long, 
long, long, long time to be a 
big girl! ” burst out this un¬ 
happy little maid, when even 
the young lady visitor, who was 
her big sister Kitty’s Sunday- 
school teacher, could not help 
smiling, and mamma asked 
laughingly what was the matter. 
“ I can’t go to Sunny-school 
till I’m a big girl, and I don’t grow a bit 
bigger any day ! ” sobbed Susy. “I’m just 
the very same littleness I was yesterday! 
I’ve been measuring ! See ! I have n’t grown 
an inch ! ” she cried, bringing out the pretty 
toy tape measure she had “ measured” with. 






AND OTHER STORIES 


63 


“ Oh, I think you are big enough ! ” said 
the young lady with a look at Susy’s mamma 
to see if she thought so too. “ I would n’t 
be a bit afraid to have you come into my 
class.” 

“ She never 
could keep still 
five minutes in 
this world,” said 
mamma with a 
shake of her head. 

“ She never did. 

“ I tell lovely 
stories! ” laughed 
the young lady. 

“ And I have a 
lovely class ! ” 

“ Oh, tell me 
one ! ” b egged 
Susy, running over to her and leaning against 
her knee. 

“ A try story, ” said mamma, smiling. 

“ Well, you can sit up on the sofa” — 

“And fold my hands, ” said Susy, scram- 



THE LOVELY CLASS 




6 4 


POLLY PEACEMAKER 


bling up and fixing herself as if she were sit¬ 
ting for her picture. 

The teacher began right off to tell the 
loveliest story that Susy ever heard in her 
life. It was all about some little children 
who went on a long journey with their fa¬ 
thers and mothers and all their folks, and the 
wonderful things that happened to them on 
the way. They had been camping out for a 
long time near a great mountain, and it 
seemed as if God were going to let them 
stay there always ; but one morning they 
heard the silver trumpets blowing and they 
saw men taking down the tents, and soon 
they were all on the march and they went on 
and on for three whole days. 

That was the beginning of the story, and 
the young lady did not tell Susy then that 
it was out of the Bible. She wanted it to 
seem fresh and new to her next Sunday 
when she told it over to all the little girls 
together. 

Little Susy sat as still as a mouse till the 
last word was said, and then she only moved 


AND OTHER STORIES 


to say, “ Please, please tell some more about 
that story ! ” 

But the young lady said, “ Next Sunday! ” 
and then she told Susy’s mamma that a little, 
girl who could sit as still as that could be’ 
trusted to go to Sunday-school every week. 

“ Maybe ! ” said mamma, 
looking as if she were not 



quite sure. “ You must re¬ 
member that this was only a 
try story! ” 


So she went, and I am 
glad to tell you that she was 


AS GOOD AS GOLD 


as good as gold all through the lesson, and 
when she went home she told her mamma 
that real stories were just as nice as try 
stories and a great deal better. 


66 


POLLY PEACEMAKER 


THE CHRISTMAS DOLLY 


'HAT are 
you do¬ 
ing, lit¬ 
tle folks, 
I won¬ 
der, all 
this Christmas 
week ? Play¬ 
ing dollies like 
the little girl 
in the picture ? 
Have they all been good 
dollies this year ? Have 
the little mothers all set 
them a good example? 
You know I have a kind of feeling that it 
makes a difference. The dollies do “ catch” 
the crossness when their mothers “ come 
down ” with it. I Ve known a dolly to fall 




AND OTHER STORIES 


67 


flat down out of a chair and crack her head 
just because her little mamma was banging 
around and slamming doors in a naughty 
temper. Be careful how you 
behave, dear little folks, be¬ 
fore these wide-eyed dollies. 

Be just as sweet every minute 
as you would like them to 
be. Some little girls ought 
never to have doll-children. 

They are n’t gentle and ten¬ 
der and patient with them. 

No wonder the dollies be¬ 
have badly, and spoil their 
clothes and scratch their faces ! If I wanted 
to know what kind of a 
little girl you are I 
would ask to see your 
dolly. The sweet little 
lady-mothers among you 
have such clean, rosy, 
smooth-cheeked pets for 
doll-children! 







POLLY PEACEMAKER 



Sing a song o’ snowdrifts, 

Of hail and wind and rain. 
Sleds and skates are toys enough 
Till summer comes again. 

See the white crust sparkle! 

See the trees bend low; 
Underneath his icy roof 
See the glad brook go! 

Merrily he’s singing, 

If you stop to hear. 

Well he knows that winter’s 
A happy time o’ year. 


AND OTHER STORIES 


69 


THE LITTLE PET LAMMIE 


HAT makes them 
pass the box two 
times in the meet¬ 
ing ? ” asked Bessy 
when she got 
home from church 
one morning. It 
was Sailors’ Sun¬ 
day, and the good 
minister had 
preached a sermon about those “ that go down 
to the sea in ships.” 

“ The first one was for running expenses,” 
said mamma. “Then after that they passed 
the box again to get some money for the 
poor sailors.” 

“What’s ‘running expenses’?” asked 
Bessy, with her forehead all in a pucker. 

“ Oh, to keep the church going, —pay the 




70 


POLLY PEACEMAKER 


coal bills and the gas bills, and pay the or¬ 
ganist and the minister. In some churches 
they let people pay for sitting in the pews, 
and get their money that way; but our seats 
are free, and so we pass 
the boxes.” 

“ The church does n’t 
run a bit! It just stays 
right there ! ” said Bessy 
stoutly. 

Papa gave a little 
laugh behind his paper, and even mamma 
smiled as she made haste to answer. “Well, 
it seems to. But its business is to ‘ go *; 
Jesus said so. I can show you the orders 
in the Bible.” 

“ Oh, do please show me the orders! ” 
begged Bessy. 

So mamma took down the Bible and turned 
to that verse in Mark which you all know. 

“ There it is. ‘ Go ye into all the world, 
and preach the gospel to every creature/ 
Now those words are for all Christ’s disci¬ 
ples.” 



AND OTHER STORIES 


7 i 


“ For me, mamma ? ” 

“ Yes, darling,” said mamma. “ For every 
one. But of course not every single one can 
go. You have to stay here and grow and go 
to school and help take care of baby, and 
I have to stay and keep the house and make 
your clothes and be the mother. There are 
a great many people just like us, whom God 
wants to stay at home for a while and do the 
home work. But all the time there are the 
orders. Now how are they going to mind 
them ? ” 

“ They might send somebody to go for 
them,” said Bessy after a while. 

“That is just what they have to do,” said 
mamma. “ That is what the contribution 
boxes are for. It takes money. To-day 
we sent preachers to the sailors. Books and 
lodging-houses and all sorts of good helps 
will come out of that money. We shall ‘ go ’ 
a long way by our gifts this morning. Sail¬ 
ors go everywhere.” 

“ I should call that the * running ex¬ 
penses/ ” laughed Bessy. “ Mamma, I want 


72 


POLLY PEACEMAKER 


to give something. I Ve got something all 
my own ! Papa said he would give me 
money for'* it! ” 

“ What is it, darling ? ” 

“ My little pet lammie. ’Course I Jove it, 
but 1 want to ’bey the orders.” 


AND OTHER STORIES 


73 


ARCHIE'S SKETCH-BOOK 



THINK it’s 
time I did 
some paint- 


mg 


said 


bwush, ” he said, 


Archie, spy¬ 
ing sister 
Kate’s sketch-book 
open on the parlor table. 
They had had it down 
the night before to show 
the boys and girls some 
of the funny pictures, 
and she had forgotten 
to carry it up again. So 
much the better for 
Archie. 

“You has to have a 
remembering how he had 


seen her “touch up” the drawings after the 



74 


POLLY PEACEMAKER 


outlines were sketched in. So up the little 
feet trotted, and when he came down he had 
her biggest brush, and thought he was all 
ready to go to work. 

“ Oh, dear ! ” he said in a minute. “ You 
has to have some paint-stuff, and that’s ’way 

up-stairs, too. My 
legs are drefful 
achey ! ” 

The next minute 
the puckered little 
forehead smoothed 
itself as if a flat¬ 
iron had passed 
over it, a nice cool 
one, I mean, that 
would n’t hurt a 
dear little white forehead. 

“You could paint wiz water, I guess ! ” he 
whispered, “ and I can get that right out of 
the fussit!” 

The faucet was easy to turn, so he did not 
have to ask anybody to help him, which was 
lucky. I am sure they would have hindered 






AND OTHER STORIES 


75 


more than they helped, if they had only 
known what they were letting him do all 
alone by himself. 

“There! now I am good and ready ! ” he 
said, seating himself happily. What a nice 
time he had painting with water, the next 
five or ten minutes! You use a good deal 
of paint when your paint is only water, and 
you have a cupful all handy. The pretty 
pages were all blistered, and then soaked, 
as if some giant had wept tears over them. 
Archie bore on hard till the brush part was 
lying flat on the paper. He thought that 
was the way to paint, but two or three times 
the stick end fairly scraped a hole in the 
paper. 

Well! now comes the thing I wrote this 
story for. 

The front door opened, and sister Kate 
came in from church, where she had been all 
the morning, or little Archie would not have 
been left to get into so much mischief. 
Poor mamma was sick with a headache, and 
the girl was too busy to take care of him as 


76 


POLLY PEACEMAKER 


well as he seemed to need that morning. Kate 
came right into the parlor. For a moment 
she did not say anything. Sometimes when 
you feel the worst, you can’t, you know. 

I will tell you what she wanted to say, what 



are sweet and holy, too. 
she did was to kiss the 


she thought of 
saying. “What a 
naughty, naughty, 
naughty boy! ” 
But the next min¬ 
ute she thought 
of something she 
had heard at 
church. It was all 
about being filled 
with the Holy 
Spirit, the Spirit 
that was in Jesus 
and that he gives 
to all his disciples, 
so that the words 
that they speak 
And, somehow, all 
little fellow and call 



AND OTHER STORIES 


77 


him a dear little scamp, and clear up the mis¬ 
chief. For, you see, he was too little to know 
any better. 

























































* 4 




















% 































